We owe it to our children to give them a dignified and hopeful future.

Now is the time to show maximum responsibility. It is not the time to pay off old scores nor for sterile partisan recriminations. It is time to re-establish a climate of calmness and mutual respect.

The institutions of the European Union, and the states that belong to this union, each and every one, are paying the price of our failures, hesitations and contradictions. We should each ask ourselves how personally responsible we are.

It is a responsibility we perceive from the entire international community to protect the stability of the single currency as well as the European frame work.

No one, no social group, can today avoid the commitment to contribute to the clean up of public finances in order to prevent the financial collapse of Italy. The sacrifices will not be in vain, especially if the economy begins to grow again.

We have to continue our efforts with determination.

If the constitutional process is not brought to a successful conclusion before the European elections, then the whole process might run out of steam.

Speaking from my experience as a person involved for a long time in building the European Union, it is important to have patience and efforts to build a community of nations.

The principal of unity and indivisibility of the republic are the essential reference points.

This unprecedented crisis, which is without doubt the worst since the second world war, is not over.

We must resist the temptation of once again turning America into the traditional bogeyman of the left.